


Winter, 1934

by toli-a (togina)



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: 1930s, Angst, Gen, Poor parenting and alcoholism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-02
Updated: 2016-03-02
Packaged: 2018-05-26 19:26:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6252457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/togina/pseuds/toli-a
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The winter of 1934 was the worst winter anyone had seen in a century (the worst one they would see for another seventy years).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Winter, 1934

The winter of 1934, Steve is fifteen with terrible asthma and a cold that might be pneumonia to boot, his Ma working extra hours at the ward for money just to get by, because FDR might have had the first 100 days of magic in 1933, but it sure ain’t done any good in the Brooklyn slums yet, a few months down the line.

And Bucky is barely sixteen, had started tenth grade in the fall even though their school stopped at ninth, because Mrs. Rogers had gotten into it with Bucky’s Da, who thought his only son would do more for the Barnes name at the docks and not sitting in a classroom.

Mrs. Rogers had dumped his Da’s whiskey down the sink, stuck her face right in Mr. Barnes’ reddened nose and fetid breath, closer than Bucky ever dared to get. “You have seen that boy’s report cards, haven’t you?” she demanded, with the lilt Steve hadn’t inherited, her cheeks flushed. “He’s smarter than every other child in that school. And if you’re too blind to see that, George, then I’ll march the lad home with me right now, and find the money to send him on to college.” And when George Barnes started guffawing at the idea of poor, widowed Sarah Rogers having enough money for anything more than laundry soap and doctor’s bills, Mrs. Rogers had done just that.

But now it’s February, and Steve hasn’t been to school in over a month, Bucky reviewing most of ninth grade (and some of eighth that Stevie missed the year before) in the evenings when he comes home. And he’s delivering milk in the mornings, even though it’s frozen solid some days, and so is he, and Mrs. Rogers is working herself ragged, hiding a cough she thinks that Bucky can’t see … but there’s still not enough money for coal, and baby Gracie had told Bucky last week that their Da had lost another job, and their Mam was too sick to take in sewing.

Stevie’s the only one who’s  _ not _ freezing, and that’s just because his temperature is over 102.

It’s February, 1934, and some days Bucky thinks none of them will make it to spring.


End file.
